Dropping the Bomb

The following are a mixture of sources about the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the
6th and 9th of August 1945.
Read through/examine the sources and do a source analysis.
Answer the following source questions in your notebooks:
1. What evidence is there that the a-bomb caused incredible heat?
2. What evidence is there that is generated tremendous force?
3. What actions by survivors suggest they were in shock?
4. List the physical effects you can identify in the Japanese survivors
5. Compare Sources C and D. What features of the effects of the bombs do they have in common?
6. What might have motivated the cartoonist in Source C to have depicted the bombs in this manner?

Source A: Statistics
Hiroshima was the first city ever targeted to be bombed by an atomic weapon. In World War Two, as the war drew to
an end, such a terrible ending could never have been understood by the people of the day as so few people
understood the power of atomic energy. The battles at Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain and even Stalingrad seemed tiny
in comparison with what took place in Hiroshima.
On August 6th 1945, the Enola Gay, a USA bomber,p dropped a bomb called "Little Boy" on Hiroshima. The initial heat
blast was 900 times hotter than the sun.
80,000 people were killed instantly many vapourised underneath the bomb blast
By 1950, 200,000 people had died as a result of the bomb.
Between 1950 and 1980, a further 97,000 people died from cancers associated with the radiation caused by "Little
Boy"

Source B: Futaba Kitayama, then 33 years of age, was 1.7 kilometres from the
centre of the explosion. Here are her memories:
"Someone shouted, "A parachute is coming down." I responded by turning in the direction she pointed. Just at that
moment the sky I was facing flashed. I do not know how to describe that light. I wondered if a fire had been set in my
eyes. I dont remember which came first the flash of light or the sound of an explosion. The next moment I was
knocked down flat on the ground. Immediately things started falling down around my head and shoulders. I couldnt
see anything; it seemed pitch dark. Soon I noticed that the air smelled terrible. Then I was shocked by the feeling that
the skin of my face had come off. Then, the hands and arms too. Starting from the elbow to my fingertips, all the skin
off my right hand came off and hung down grotesquely. The skin of my left hand, all my five fingers, also came off.
I ran like mad toward to the bridge, jumping over the piles of debris. What I saw under the bridge was shocking.
Hundreds of people were squirming in the stream. I could not tell if they were men or women. They looked all alike.
Their faces were swollen and grey, their hair was standing up. Groaning people were rushing to the river. My burns
starting paining me. It was a kind of pain different form an ordinary burn which might be unbearable. Mine was a dull
pain that was coming somewhere far apart from my body. I imagined that my face also must be in a dreadful shape.
By my side many high school students were squirming in agony. They were crying insanely "mother, mother". They
were so severely burned and blood-stained that one could scarcely dare to look at them. I could do nothing for them
but watch them die one by one, seeking their mothers in vain.
As far as I could see everywhere in flames. Steadily, my face became stiffer. I put my hands carefully on my cheeks
and felt my face. It seemed to have swollen to twice its size. I kept walking. I saw on the street many victims being
carried away by stretcher. Carts and trucks heavily loaded with corpses and wounded who looked like beasts, came
and passed me. On both sides of the street, many people were wandering about like sleepwalkers.

Source C Japanese cartoon

Source DAnother victims account: